‘The Second Son’ by Xavy

My name is Xavy and I am 2 years old today. You know my brother Terence from the previous post and I too must have my space in my mom’s blog. These 2 years of my existence were marked by the hustle and bustle of my parents’ budding careers. My sense of self and life in general is being revealed to me in the townhouse that my parents and elder brother moved into before I was born, in contrast to my brother who grew up in a condominium. As with other second born children, my mom has more confidence that I will develop social skills early on with my brother keeping me company and my constant playmate. He is a big influence in my life and I caught his passion for juggling. Watching juggling videos on YouTube has been our favorite pastime.

My being born into this world is a result of my parents’ confidence that becoming one is not as hard as they imagined. When parents get past the baptismal rites and the ever grand first birthday party of the firstborn, they now breathe a sigh of relief and gear up to have baby number two. Suddenly, having only one child seems to be insufficient especially when the eldest grows so fast. Parents start reflecting on what they did wrong and how to improve the second time around-or can they really?

“The beauty of ‘spacing’ children many years apart lies in the fact that parents have the time to learn the mistakes that were made with the older ones which permits them to make exactly the opposite mistakes with the younger ones.” – Sydney J. Harris